HOME SUMMARY.

Colonist, Issue II, 8 December 1857, Page 2

HOME SUMMARY.

There have been rumours respecting a change in the composition of the Indian branch of the Home Government, which, being in connection with the one-engrossing subject of pur thoughts, have attracted considerable attention. It has been given out that there is a probability of a change in the Presidentship of the Board of Control. The story runs that Mr. Vernon Smith will be raised to the peerage, and will be succeeded by the Duke of Somerset or Sir Charles Wood. If by the latter, it is s!aid to be probable that .Sir James Graham will be offered the chief seat at the Board of Admiralty. This latter story comes coupled with a report that Lord Panmure is about to retire from the War Office, to be succeeded by Mr. Sydney Herbert. Another elevation to the peerage has been much talked of—not, however, as a rumour, but as a fact. Mr. Macaulay is to cease to be a commoner. He will henceforth occupy a conspicuous place hi the gallery of " noble authors." Twelve screw steamers-have been chartered this week by the East India Company, for the conveyance of troops to the East. A telegraphic despatch, in anticipation of the overland mail, is expected every hour. Nothing can exceed the interest with which the news from India is now looked for, stimulated as the public anxiety is by the publication of the exciting letters from the: scenes of mutiny and murder. A statement relative to the Patriotic fund and the claims upon it has appeared during the last few days. The claims involve an expenditure of nearly £80,000 a-year. It appears that there are' on the books 3704 widows, 3900 children, and 156 orphans—the only classes eligible for relief under the royal commission. The town of Belfast was the scene of a serious riot between the Roman Catholics and the Orangemen, caused by the street preaching of a Presby-

terian clergvmaa named Hanna. The riot act was read, and the mob fired on by the constabulary. The conduct of the local authorities has been strongly condemned, and the Lord-Li eutcnont has issued a commission to inquire into all the circumstances and report upon them. The Irish Executive has determined on the adoption of the most rigorous measures to prevent these unseemly displays. Mr. Charles Dickens, the chairman, and Mr. Albert Smith, the honorary secretary of Mr.Douglas Jerrold's Memorial Fund, announce that the various performances, readings, and lectures have realised, clear of all expenses, the sum of £2000. The closeness of the alliance between the two great Western Powers cannot be more unmistakably exhibited than in the letter which the Count de Persigny, the French Ambassador in London, has addressed to the Lord Mayor of that city, inclosing a telegraphic despatch from his Imperial master the Emperor. The despatch, which is characteristic, runs thus—" I send you a £1000 sterling as my subscription in favour of the officers and soldiers so cruelly afflicted in India. I also send you ,£SOO, the result of the subscriptions of the Imperial Guai'd. We have not fogotten the generous subscription of the Queen and the English people at the time of the inundations." This communication was immediately follpwed by one from Balmoral, to the same civic dignity, desirmg that the Queen's'name might be entered for a £1000 towards the same object, Prince Albert's for £300, and the Duke of Cambridge for £100. Lord Palmerst6ia gives £100. Movements are taking place oveivfc'he country to raise money for the same pui-pose. The London subscription is little short of, £20,000. ■' ' ..:,'■ Ifhe approaching interview between the Emperor of the French and the Russians causes considerable speculation in Paris. The general impression is that the visit is one of mere courtesy, and will take-place shortly at Stuttgardt, the capital of Wurtemberg; but others affect to see in it very important political movements. The dispute between Spain and Mexico has been referred for amicable settlement to the intervention of France and England. The submarine cable which connects Europe and Africa has been successfully laid this week between Cape Tuelada, in Sardinia, and Cape Bon, in Africa; the distance is 145 miles. A recent despatch from Rome announces the return of the Pope to the eternal city. The Shah of Persia has placed his Mahomedan, Christian, and Jewish subjects on.a footing of perfect eqality. Parliament was prorogued on the 28th of August. The Queen's speech contains some of the most importaut measures passed during the last session, from which it will be seen that the new Parliament devoted itself to its work throughout its short sitting with extraordinary energy. The speech is, in other respects, all that could be desired. It announces the pacific state of our relations with the powers of Europe, and refers to the mutiny in India with a touching expression of the deep grief her Majesty feels at the sufferings to which so many of her loyal subjects have been exposed, declaring, at the same time, her full confidence, under Providence, in the powerful means at her disposal for the restoration of tranqujlity. These are not mere words of course. • On this occasion the language of the royal speech is not intended to conceal the thought of the speaker, but is, on the contrary too weak to give it adequate utterance. We have reason to know, apart from the public channels of information, that her Majesty is profoundly afflicted at the disasters which have occurred in India, and that she watches the course of events there with the most painful interest. . The profound and universal sympathy felt throughout England, and, indeed, we may justly add Europe, for the sufferings of our brave fellowcountrymen, cannot be adequately described. All the foreign journals, French and German, and even the Russian organs, have expressed sentiments honourable to them at such a time, and, we believe, that if it were necessary,'or desirable, we could obtain any amount of help in the way of levies from the continent. In Germany,, our counsels have declined the offers of service which have been tendered to them. Nor is it the least remarkable feature in the general demonstration on behalf of the English soldiers in India that the Americans always loath' to meddle in foreign quarrels, have intimated their willingness to aid us. . A report that Persia would take advantage of the mutiny in India to refuse to execute the treaty of peace, or to evacuate Herat, proves to be without foundation. After a delay, which lias been satisfactorily accounted for, Herat has been evacuated, and our delations with the Shah placed upon the most friendly basis. . We hear from Constantinople that Schamyl had achieved a succession of brilliant victories over the Russians. Miss Madeline Smith.—Miss Smith has sought retirement elsewhere. She has gone, we believe, to the South of England," for a permanent residence. Her" departure was managed so quietly that it was 'scarcely known till some time after she had gone. She went on board the steamer at Roseneath on Friday last, and sailed up the river unnoticed, and had completed her journey before even those who were partially in the secret and on the look out were aware of her movements. The morbid curiosity which seems to influence a large section of society has latterly developed itself in an amazing quantity of letters,-which were poured in upon this unhappy girl—letters, we believe^ of the most frivolous nature, and chiefly written with the view of securing her autograph. Among these epistles, she told a friend, there were ten offers of marriage! -- If this be true—and there seems little doubt of it—we may well blush at the moral degradation of the men who wrote them.—Dumbarton Herald. Member, of Parliament Shot.—On the after, noon of the 27th of August, about a qurter-past one o'clock, Mr. James Platt, one of the members of Parliament for Oldham, was accidentally shot on the moor of his estate, near Greenfield, Saddleworth, and the wounds proved fatal in little more than an hour afterwards.